I briefly read about a new band called Sleigh Bells, and found them on emusic. Strange stuff indeed. I don’t like all the songs, but I must say I REALLY like the female singer’s voice – somehow manages to sound both quite innocent and quite sexy at the same time!!

The tunes, well, they are hard to describe. I downloaded two. One is called “Run the Heart,” and the other is “Rill Rill.” “Rill Rill” features a sample of a classic Funkadelic tune called “Can You Get to That?” – which is a wonderful tune and also worth MANY listens!

I would have downloaded more by Sleigh Bells, but I ran out of downloads on my subscription, which refreshes on the 5th. This band’s tunes will go well with some songs I downloaded some months ago – by Lily Allen (“The Fear,” “Chinese”), and Goldfrapp (“Crystalline Green”).

If you want darker, much more late-night haunting mellow unusual music, I strongly suggest listening to Hooverphonic, a band from Belgium. I have selections from three of their albums – “A New Stereophonic Sound Sensation,” “Blue Wonder Powder Milk,” and “President of the LSD Golf Club.” They might remind you of Portishead, except that Portishead is a band with a much darker sound, and terribly depressing lyrics. Hooverphonic is much more ethereal and not depressing.. dark, I suppose, but not depressing.. wonderful stuff, reallly. I think I mentioned them in an earlier blog.

The other few downloads I had left tonight, I used to get a blues tune by a little known group called Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women. Yes, I am guessing they spelled the word “saphire” wrong on purpose. The tune I selected was one I first heard many years ago when I was a volunteer DJ at a college station. The song is called “Learn to Settle for Less.” The vocalist sounds a bit like Nina Simone, if you can imagine Nina Simone sounding … happy. Simone actually does sound happy on her album called “The Blues,” which is worth checking out.

Speaking of female blues singers.. I was hoping to download some tracks by Etta James (she sang that hugely popular classic, “At Last.) There was one of her greatest hits albums on emusic, but it is in dire need of being remastered – the sound “quality” is so bad. I was hoping to get “At Last,” and “I’d Rather Go Blind.” There’s a live album she does with Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson. I don’t remember the title of it, but it’s good. There’s a rather rowdy live version of “I’d Rather Go Blind” on that album.

The other 2 downloads (that’s a hard word to type) I got tonight were from the album “Goodbye Jumbo,” by World Party. That one came out in 1990. I’m surprised World Party didn’t get a whole lot bigger. Quite a good band, really.. creative late ’80’s style rock/pop with some definite Queen and Beatles influences. The album has a WHOLE lot of variety on it. Their song “Way Down Now” sounds kind of like They Might Be Giants, but most of the album does not sound like “Way Down Now,” which is a bit disappointing. Apart from that, if you can dig all the variety, you’ll dig the album and band. I will get some more of their tunes this month.

If you want some unusual music, and like trying different genres, then you might really like these bands!